Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
Each year before Christmas, the Pope holds an audience with officials of the Roman Curia, for an exchange of Christmas greetings.
Pope Benedict XVI has used these annual occasions as an opportunity to reflect on what he considers the most important issues facing the Church.
By looking backward across the events of the past year, he gives his subordinates some insights into his plans for Vatican policies in the near future.
With this year's talk Benedict has signaled that his primary focus for 2009 will be the drive to proclaim the Gospel, energetically and unapologetically, throughout the world during the remainder of the Pauline Year.
The patriarch of Jerusalem announced that Benedict XVI wants to visit the Holy Land in May to get firsthand knowledge of the difficult situations in the region.
The Pope's "clear" statement on the importance of heterosexual lifestyles will widen the rift with the Archbishop of Canterbury on the issue of homosexuality, senior Anglican conservatives predicted.
(Op-ed: WHY B16 IS RIGHT - AND WRONG)
Michael Turner is in court again — suing the Vatican.
Until recently, no federal court has allowed a case to proceed against the Vatican — and few really believed the Holy See would ever be open to lawyers or its treasury subject to money damages. It is considered a foreign state with sovereign immunity.
[WAR: The Vatican is now dealing with a Michael Turner over a court case. So they'll be scratching their heads when another Michael Turner has a court case challenging the authority/jurisdiction of the Gregorian Calendar.]
In a Christmas message today, President Koehler has backed calls for a better world financial system where capitalism "serves everybody and nobody has to feel oppressed by it."
The German government whipped its €480 billion bank bailout package through parliament in record time, but now the program has run into trouble.
The banks are still fighting for survival, the money market isn't functioning properly, and taxpayers' money is being burned.
A meeting was held in early December under the auspices of Impulse 21 — the Berlin Forum for Security Policy.
Impulse 21, an initiative of Germany's defence ministry, has held meetings since 2003 involving senior military leaders and politicians to discuss questions of foreign and domestic security, NATO, relations with the European Union and the tasks of the Bundeswehr (Federal Armed Forces).
Behind such open ideological preparations for war lie the rapid changes, fractures and strains in international economy and politics, which are intensifying both foreign and domestic tensions to an extraordinary degree.
Israel must complete its Jerusalem barrier by 2010, Prime Minister Olmert said, signalling plans to press ahead with a project that Palestinians condemn as a major obstacle to any peace accord.
In recent weeks, numerous voices around the world have started to denounce the Israeli apartheid system and the crimes against humanity that the Zionist state has been committing against the Palestinian people in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem (Al-Quds).
After confirmation of a report that Indian and Israeli air forces have planned an attack on Pakistan's nuclear installations, Pakistan Air Force sprang into action by sending its fighter jets into the air to thwart a possible air strike on Monday, according to reliable sources.
Sources said a secret meeting of the Mossad, CIA, FBI, RAW and MI-5 was held in which a possible attack on Pakistan's nuclear installation s was discussed.
Arabs and Iranians should sit together to try to resolve regional disputes, including the Persian nation's nuclear ambitions, the head of the Arab League said Tuesday.
Many, mostly Sunni Arab nations are worried about the majority Shiite Iran's gaining power in the region, particularly its influence over Iraq, Lebanon's militant Shiite Hizbullah group and the militant Palestinian Hamas.
Is the United States going to put dictatorship into effect under the guise of the anti-terrorist struggle?
What may trigger another major transformation in 2009? The answer is obvious: another 9/11 in the US.
Terrible and bloody events are in store for the world in the beginning of 2009.
Most likely, the world will witness a reality show with a nuclear blast, which will be used as a reason for the US administration to change the world order again and leave the new Great Depression behind.
Christian apologists for the state, its leaders, its military, and its wars are not known for being the most consistent group of religious people.
They are, in fact, some of the most inconsistent, hypocritical, duplicitous, 2-faced people – religious or irreligious – that one will encounter when it comes to people who defend the state's military adventures.
Vice President Dick Cheney has a parting message for Americans: They should quit whining about all the things he and President Bush did to undermine the rule of law, erode the balance of powers between the White House and Congress, abuse prisoners and spy illegally on Americans.
Well, well, well – it looks like our war-birds over at the American Enterprise Institute are getting kicked out of their very well-feathered nest. It couldn't have happened to a more deserving bunch.
So, can we say, with absolute certitude – and unabashed joy – that the neocons are over, and the War Party is through? Not by a long shot.
Because what's rising on the left-end of the political spectrum is a new brand of neoconservatism, a "liberal" and even "enlightened" variety of the same old hubris-in-arms that animated the departed warmongers of AEI.
Barack Obama, AKA Barry Obama, Barry Soetoro, Barry Sutoro, Barack Soetoro is a liar, a con man and a fraud.
He is a con man because he is making promises that he can't keep. He has already proven he conned the voters by his chosen cabinet and staff.
The World is beginning to realize that he has not changed anything.
(Cartoon: PALIN's SHOT)
Draft resolution XX on the right to food, approved on 24 November by a recorded vote of 180 in favour to 1 against (United States), with no abstentions, would have the Assembly reaffirm that hunger constitutes an outrage and a violation of human dignity, requiring the adoption of urgent measures at the national, regional and international level, for its elimination.
The global economic downturn is gathering speed in Europe, Asia and the US and while there is talk of a recovery in the 2nd half of the year, it is far from a certainty, economists say.
Financial analyst Ralph Silva of TowerGroup told CNBC this morning that he expects no less than 1/3 of banks to fail in 2009 and that anything up to a thousand could collapse if they don't merge.
Silva said that only 5 or 6 global banks have enough funds to survive comfortably throughout 2009. "The rest of the banks, and that means a thousand other banks, don't have enough money to get themselves through 2009."
A quiet revolution in central banking is gathering speed, as the Federal Reserve ploughs ever deeper into the brave new world of unorthodox monetary policy and other central banks ponder how far they might have to follow.
Before all the Xmas BS gets in the way, an end-of-year essay of sorts is in order, especially so given the bumpy ride capitalism has bestowed on us this past 12 months.
And the portents for 2009 look to be even worse as capitalism, desperate to shed over-valued assets, descends into the abyss.
And if history has any lessons for us, some global conflagration is now in order.
"Helicopter" Ben Bernanke's ludicrous decision to lower the Federal Reserve's interest rates to practically 0%, thereby in effect setting no limits on cranking up the money pumps, supposedly in order to counteract spreading worldwide deflation, has struck terror even in dyed-in-the-wool free traders and neoliberal commentators.
Suddenly, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Die Welt, the London Daily Telegraph, and others are warning of the peril of exploding inflation.
How can it be that on the one hand, we have the collapse of prices of raw materials, energy, and consumer goods, shrinking corporate profits, and growing unemployment; and on the other, we have the threat of inflation?
(And: LAROUCHE BLASTS FED FOLLY)
What Madoff did was, in a nutshell, what the economy as a whole has been doing under the moniker "wealth creation."
(And: WHEN TRUST RUNS OUT)
Fallout from the Madoff scandal continues to batter investors, banks and private charities in the US, Europe and Japan.
Recent press reports make clear that the Madoff affair is not an aberration.
It is indicative of pervasive fraud and criminality in the highest echelons of the financial establishment, aided and abetted by government regulatory agencies.
Have the Bush-Paulson-Bernanke policies worked? Did the economy turn around on their watch or through the trillions spent by the Fed?
Not even close---maybe its time to TARP them all. So far, Not good at all.
(Cartoon: AT THE BANKERS XMAS BANQUET)
President Ahmadinejad called on a regional economic body to abandon the US dollar in order to reduce the effects of the financial crisis.
In a Tuesday speech to a meeting of the Economic Cooperation Organization, he said the 10-member group of Asian nations could adopt a single currency instead of the US dollar to shield their financial systems from the negative impacts of the global economic crisis.
UK retailing, a sector employing 11% of the workforce and contributing 8% of GDP, is experiencing the most difficult trading environment for years as house prices crumble and jobs are axed.
Toyota's announcement on Monday of a projected operating loss for the current financial year — its first in more than half a century — has sent shockwaves through the auto industry, not only in Japan but internationally.
The Japanese carmaker has long been regarded as the international benchmark for manufacturing efficiency, so its losses are a clear demonstration that no one is immune from the worsening global recession.
Sales of single-family houses in the US dropped in November by the most in 2 decades and resale prices collapsed at a pace reminiscent of the Great Depression, dashing speculation the market was close to a bottom.
London cocoa futures have hit a 23-year-high as cocoa turned out to be the most lucrative commodity in 2008.
A strong economy must be built on a solid foundation of steadily rising wages.
If wages don't keep pace with production, the only way the economy can grow is through the expansion of debt, which leads to disaster.
The problem is not one of technology or information. It is political.
These vast productive forces, created and sustained by the physical and intellectual labour of the world working class, are subordinated to the irrational and destructive drives of the outmoded capitalist profit system.
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After a generation of productive research, a newer paradigm shift is taking place.
Science is discovering that it is our emotions that make thought possible, not the other way around. We simply cannot understand thought without understanding emotion.
This is a radical departure from the traditional perspective, which used to regard emotion as the antagonist of reason.
A comet, an eclipse, a supernova, an alignment of planets - was the Star of Bethlehem a real astronomical event?
(And: SOB: FACT OR FICTION?)
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